6 posts from November 2013

11/27/2013

The Institute Benjamin Franklin organized several class activities in November, such as a visit to “El Escorial” and the “Valle de los Caídos”, to “Residencia de Estudiantes” where Dalí, Lorca and Buñuel studied, to two rotary newspapers” and the city of Cuenca.

And we do not forget their individual trips of our Fall students to Barcelona, Roma, Paris, Dublin, Prague,…

And seeing as Fall always comes with lots of cultural activities, Alcalá also had its annual Film Festival “Alcine” from November 9-16 (http://www.alcine.org/home/index.php). The most important part of the festival is: the National Short film contest.

Our second CIEE group reunion, “CULTURAL DIFFERENCES/HOW THINGS WORK)” was on November 20th. We talked about the courses and the professors, and the students completed mid-term evaluations. We shared feelings related to their families and friends.

And, of course, our students continue improving their relationship with their families and friends.

December is coming very very soon. The time flies!!!!! The students will leave Alcalá de Henares on December 2oth. But before that day, we are going to joing more things and sharing with all of you here :)

Where I live (in the residencia) my roommates and I spend much of our time in the living room. There are 3 sofas, a table, and a television. I learned very quickly that here in Spain it is very common to watch TV any hour of the day. We even do our homework with the TV on.

There are many differences between television in Spain and the US. Obviously, the biggest distinction is the language. When I arrived in Spain I didn’t like watching TV because I didn’t understand anything and there are no subtitles on any channel. For me since coming here, watching TV was and still is educational! I am happy now because I understand much more of the content on TV than I did the first few days here. Another difference is the duration of a movie or TV show. In the US every eight or ten minutes there are three-minute commercials, but here there are twenty or thirty minutes of a show and five minutes of commercials. I like the second format much better because there are fewer interruptions during a show. The last difference is the use of bad words. In the US it is not permitted to use bad words in a program or movie on TV, and when someone says one it is censored with a beep. In Spain anyone can say a bad word with no consequences.

They have lots of American TV shows here in Spain, but I don’t like watching them because of the changed voices of the actors bother me. When you know what Tom Cruise’s voice is supposed to sound like but you hear a different one in Spanish, it is very weird! There are also lots of Spanish TV shows like la que se avecena a popular comedy about an apartment building and the people (neighbors) who live there. Every Sunday there are movies on many channels here. Usually they are American movies, but there are also Spanish films too.

I am not going to lie; I missed American TV two months ago. But now I am much more accustomed to the TV here. There are parts about TV here that are way better than in the US like less commercials and a good selection of movies on Sundays! TV is definitely going to be a culture shock for any non-native Spaniard, but it isn’t so bad.

Almost the entire world knows “The Classic,” the game between Real Madrid and Barcelona. A lot of people say that the rivalry is the fiercest in sports (I know, it’s European Fooball, in the United States, there are other rivalries more important in our football!) But, there is another rivalry that is very important in Spain, especially in Madrid. The game between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.

The name of this competition is “El Derbi madrileño” (Madrid derby). Derby is a word that means a game between two teams from the same city. Real Madrid plays in the center of Madrid, and Atlético plays in the south (look at the map, Real Madrid is purple and Atlético is red). The rivalry is very similar to the New York “derby” between the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets, but the Madrid derby is much stronger. The Yankees have a lot of money, and win many games and championships. The Mets do not have as much money, and many people believe that the Mets are the “ugly stepbrother” in New York.

Real Madrid is a team that the whole world knows. Their fans are called “madridistas.” The team has white jerseys, and they are called “the whites” or “the meringues” (meringue is a dessert that is very sweet and white) by many people. Names for Atlético Madrid are “the mattresses” (their jerseys are red and white, the same as comforters that were used in Spain many years ago) “the red and whites” (a combination of the words red and white), and simply, Atleti.

For many years Real Madrid dominated the competition. The final game that Atlético won was in 1999. But the last year in “The Kings Cup” (a competition between all of the teams and divisions in Spain) Atlético won against Real Madrid in the final. This year, Atlético won the first derby. Now Real Madrid has fewer points than Atlético Madrid.

PS- this bloc is very difficult to write for me because I am a huge fan of Real Madrid (or I’m a madridista), and I hate Atlético, especially the fans! But if you study in Alcalá in the future, don’t say anything and keep the secret because my professor of “Global dimension of European Soccer” is a huge fan of the red and whites, although our RD –Cristina Blanco- is a fan of Real Madrid!

11/11/2013

I was surprised when I heard that people in
Spain celebrate Halloween. When I heard
this I didn’t think that many people celebrated Halloween, but there were many
festivities. People dress up in scary
costumes. In the U.S. some people dress
up like celebrities or characters from movies or a TV show, but in Spain the
people dress up as witches, zombies, or other scary costumes.

Like in the U.S. the little kids go trick-or-treating. Some of the young people go to parties or the
discotecas. I went to the Zombie March
for Halloween and I have never seen anything like it, it was very fun. People dressed up as zombies and marched
through the plaza. There was music and dancing
and everyone was in a festive mood. It
was nice to have a little part of the U.S. in Alcalá.

The festivities continued into November 1st,
All Saints’ Day. On October 31st
and November 1st there was a performance in Alcalá called Don
Juan. It was performed outside at
night. This year was the XXIX edition of
Don Juan in Alcalá. I didn’t understand
a lot of it, because it was old Spanish, but I had fun! I liked getting to know
and participate in an Alcalá tradition.

11/04/2013

On the 16th
of October, we went to the Vicente Calderón stadium where the team Atlético
plays and trains. We went on a tour of the stadium; visiting the museum, the
field, the small bleachers,the conference room, the locker room, and where the
rich sit. At first, we our tour guide explained that the name of the stadium
had been changed from Manzanares Stadium to Vicente Calderón in honor of
Atlético’s famous president. Also she said that they are planning to build a
new stadium for the team when they have the money. In the museum, we saw the
explayers’ jerseys,the old soccer balls with the sneakers, the trophies, the
jerseys’ designs throughout the ages, old toys, and a toy similar to foosball
for football. Some jerseys were worn by Simeone and Falcao. The two trophies
that are presented proudly are the trophy of the International Cup and the
King’s Cup. In the locker room, there are the photos of the player in each
locker, starting with Diego Costa. On the field, we could sit in the players’
seats despite the fact that we couldn’t walk on the grass. The bleachers are in
the team’s colors, red and white with blue as well. In the end, we saw a short
movie about the team’s celebrations after winning the King’s Cup. This field
trip was very informative of the world of football and of the fanaticism of
sports.